How N.E.A.T. are you?

Friday, November 30, 2012

''NEAT" stands for Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis and refers to the activities we do outside of our daily exercise workout.

Today in my SparkCoach session Coach Nicole discusses NEAT.
She relates this fact:
"Some obesity researchers believe that how much excess weight a person carries is directly related to how much the person moves in general--how much ''NEAT'' they accumulate each day. If you work out for even an hour a day, you could be completely sedentary for the other 23 hours"

I am guilty of this more than I'd like to admit.

But, I already do a couple things to keep from being sedentary.

I already:
1. park as far away from stores and even my health club. (my kids absolutely hate this; they try and park as close as possible!)
2. try to take the stairs when I have to go to the Dr. office.

My goals are:
1. to try and stand more while I'm at my laptop. I spend a lot of time in front of that screen, a perfect opportunity to stand or even do occasionally squats.
2. I purchased a used bosu on ebay (will arrive next week) and I plan to put it in front of the TV and work on all kinds of balance moves while watching my favorite shows.
3. try and get my family and friends to do more active things. Instead of going out to dinner or see a movie I want to go bowling and take walks.

Would love to hear from everyone how they stay active in their lives; outside of the traditional workout.

What a cool blog and interesting way to think. I am guilty of a lot of sedentary time between 4 and 8 pm. With my Fitbit, I am trying hard to get in as many steps as I can each day. But I know I can still be NEATer.

I found as I lost some of the weight, that I tended to DO IT NOW instead of putting everything off to a more convenient time. So unconsciously I have become more NEAT. But I have a long way to go. Thanks for the info.

Interesting title...not what I thought it would be about.You hit the nail on the head for me. I have been setting small goals for the last few months to get me doing some more activity outside the dedicated exercise times. I haven't met any those goals as yet and they're not that challenging. I do the parking lot and stair challenge and can say that's pretty much a new way of doing things which has become habit. Going to try again this month. As hard as it is to admit I have to say I am not very NEAT. I won't give up though as I hope to be someday.

Great blog! I can honestly say that this is the only sense in which I can consider myself NEAT, ha,ha.I am moving around all day long, in fact I hardly ever sit on our furniture except for typing on the computer. Even when I watch TV I usually fold laundry and get up during every commercial break. Some of it is that I don't like sitting still. I use an exercise ball in front of the computer quite often so I can roll around on it as I type.I also have a lot of animals. 8 dogs that need walked daily, a very fit daughter who wants to go swimming every day so I go along since I have to drive her, a horse that I ride and exercise from the ground, a vegetable garden that needs care 9 months out of the year.. you get he picture. I typically eat at least 2000-2500 calories when I don't exercise much and much more when I go for a long run or do strength training.

I'm not as NEAT as I'd like! I do try to set an alarm that dings every hour to remind me to get up and do something. One thing I've done is joine the Quick Fire Challenge team that gives us an exercise to quick fire each day and when my alarm sounds I get up and do whatever the exercise is.... Today it was Curtsey Lunges. Great goals! Wishing you success!

I have thought of doing xxxx amount of minutes of activity for every xxxx amount of minutes sitting. And it actually played out as a minute to minute exchange for me but I do not want to remop the floors three time a day!!! LOL Will have to give this more thought and start out at a lower level let's say 5-10 minutes to every hour.

What is "funny" is I used to sit for a cigarette for every hour of activity. And when I quit smoking in 1997 I took a walk when I wanted a cigarette. But it seems it was all downhill from there and activity has been replaced with sitting!!!

NEAT is certainly an issue for me as well. I can sit for hours. I contemplate turning my timer on for 55 minutes and every hour deliberately do something active be it a bit of straightening up or some kind of fitness. I haven't implemented this strategy yet. I am to comfortable in my comfort zone of NEAT!